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Finals Vent!

Okay, I know that a lot of the people here have been venting about having to take finals, but you should know that it is not always fun to grade either!Here is an actual sentence from a paper that I received...

But this project was very interesting to me and I felt like having to pick the right people for the surgery is such a tough decision to make I no we just had to do it of a paper and didn't really mean anything but after doing the paper I feel like I had to pick people and it was so tough because it made me feel like a doctor and have to no what they go through everyday having to say no to little girls who are to young or old people who need it so it was just hard for me to pick who I wanted cause it was tough and it wasn't even the real thing.

Re: Finals Vent!

Wow. What level do you teach?

I am in grad school full-time, and although there are no finals, I have 5 major projects due in the next 3 weeks. I'd rather have finals. At least in undergrad at ISU, there were multiple choice tests that you could bumble through even if you didn't study. You can't do that with a 20 page research paper.

Re: Finals Vent!

Originally Posted by wolverine68

Okay, I know that a lot of the people here have been venting about having to take finals, but you should know that it is not always fun to grade either!Here is an actual sentence from a paper that I received...

She didn't even mention "the Iraq" or "the Asian countries." Automatic F- - for that.

Re: Finals Vent!

It's a 100 level course, but I just can not believe that someone with those writing skills could make it through high school. Of course there is the other explanation... The paper was written at 3 a.m. after a bender. That would explain a lot.

Re: Finals Vent!

Dude,

Papers are where "stream of consciousness writing" live.

What I do NOT get, is this irrepressible desire by the vast majority of college-aged students to tell you a) how much they liked an assignment, b) how hard they worked on an assignment, c) how they "feel" aobut an assignment, in any way, whatsoever, and d) how they will use the assignment to improve their life, improve other people's lives, or build a better tomorrow.

All you have to do is write a "pyramid paper" and you already get a "pass" in one of my classes. Using actual logic and some sort of construction gets you a "C". Tying the intro, the summary, the main body together gets a "B". Having all of those things relevant, and supporting them with something approaching "facts" and (gasp) making it interesting gets you an "A", a sloppy wet kiss (on the lips, even, if you'd like) and a date with one of my teenaged daughters. (You do NOT want to know if you use properly annotated and relevant references.)

Needless to say, the great majority of my students have been safe from my kisses and my daughters are safe from them.

I'm baaack! See my Hot Milk For Breakfast blog under Social Groups for more details

Re: Finals Vent!

The only thing I've ever learned from writing a paper is the proper way to write a paper. True story, our HS education system at its best. And yes, finals are a waste of time. You learn absolutely nothing.

Re: Finals Vent!

Projects and papers are the way to go. You may not think you're getting anything out of it, and there's a good chance you don't actually learn anything, but they are very valuable commodities when you interview for your first job out of school. Interviewers like for you to describe to them how you work in group situations or how you handled managing heavy project tasks, and those experiences provide good fodder for giving them the answers they are looking for.

Exams are a big waste of time. You cram and cram and cram for a day or two or three, then less than a week after you finish the test, the crap you packed into your head just disappears. A waste of neurons.

Re: Finals Vent!

I would add the fact that I think that our educational system often teaches the wrong thing. I often use this example in my classes: Throughout a student’s educational career, when they are told to write a report, the teacher, or professor, gives them a list of instructions (4 pages long, typed, double spaced, defining the margins, the font size, and the style including a long list of what they expect analytically from the paper), in the real world their boss will say "I need this report on my desk by tomorrow." There are no other instructions; the report simply needs to be written. I think that we too often spoon feed our students. We give them formulas when we should expect self discipline. My father, a banker, has complained on more than one occasion about employees that he hires straight out of college. "After sixteen years in the public education system, all they have learned to do is ask someone else for the answer!"In a training session that I took part in a few years ago, this was described as the "Sgt. Friday" approach to education. "Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts." Students have been taught to simply regurgitate what they have been told onto a test or into a paper. We are not teaching them to think for themselves. As the presenter put it, we have taught them to believe that 2+2=4 without question. But is that always true? In a binary system, there is no such thing. If I were to take two cups of water and two cups of pure alcohol and combine them in a container, I would not have four cups of liquid. The fact is that you should not accept any statement as true without questioning it for yourself. It is not enough to repeat the truth; you have to understand the truth.

Re: Finals Vent!

Originally Posted by wolverine68

I would add the fact that I think that our educational system often teaches the wrong thing. I often use this example in my classes: Throughout a student’s educational career, when they are told to write a report, the teacher, or professor, gives them a list of instructions (4 pages long, typed, double spaced, defining the margins, the font size, and the style including a long list of what they expect analytically from the paper), in the real world their boss will say "I need this report on my desk by tomorrow." There are no other instructions; the report simply needs to be written. I think that we too often spoon feed our students. We give them formulas when we should expect self discipline. My father, a banker, has complained on more than one occasion about employees that he hires straight out of college. "After sixteen years in the public education system, all they have learned to do is ask someone else for the answer!"In a training session that I took part in a few years ago, this was described as the "Sgt. Friday" approach to education. "Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts." Students have been taught to simply regurgitate what they have been told onto a test or into a paper. We are not teaching them to think for themselves. As the presenter put it, we have taught them to believe that 2+2=4 without question. But is that always true? In a binary system, there is no such thing. If I were to take two cups of water and two cups of pure alcohol and combine them in a container, I would not have four cups of liquid. The fact is that you should not accept any statement as true without questioning it for yourself. It is not enough to repeat the truth; you have to understand the truth.

Re: Finals Vent!

Originally Posted by wolverine68

Okay, I know that a lot of the people here have been venting about having to take finals, but you should know that it is not always fun to grade either!Here is an actual sentence from a paper that I received...

Sorry, had to get that off of my chest. Back to grading.

The world needs ditch diggers too...

On a side note, an ex girlfriend of mine at ISU was an Elementary Ed major and would always have me proof read her papers before she finished them. They were terrible, just awful - maybe at a 10th grade level, which means something coming from me(trust me, lol).

She's now teaching English at a public elementary school in Nebraska.

While on live TV, Ford used a vulgar term to describe a private part of the female anatomy, adding that he was “happily married” and “got more than enough to eat at home.”

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